Ben Carson

Ben Carson

"I think one of the keys to leadership is recognizing that everybody has gifts and talents. A good leader will learn how to harness those gifts towards the same goal."

-Ben Carson

Full Name: Benjamin Solomon Carson

When and Where he was Born: September 18, 1951 in Detroit, Michigan

Childhood Challenges/Obstacles

Throughout Ben Carson's childhood he went through a lot of challenges. His mom was divorced and their family lived in a very rough part of Detroit where they had a very low income, and sometimes they were racially abused. Mr.Carson was also a failing student from when he started school to about the age of 10.

Recovery

During the time that Mr.Carson was failing his mom made him read two books weekly, write down the summary, and read the summary to his mom. He was also strictly limited to television viewing.

Soon his grades started going up and he became the smartest student in his school. Because of all of these academic achievements he was offered a lot of scholarships to Ivy League Colleges. He chose Yale University, where he actually wanted to be a psychotherapist but soon found the love and devotion for neurology.

Gifted Hands Trailer

Impact On the World

Mr.Carson made many medical miracles happen. He was the first person to do the craniopagus surgery ( where two twins are usually conjoined at the back of their heads by a common blood vessel- during surgery there is a loss of one twin) where both twins survived the procedure.

Mr.Carson was also very renowned because of the famous case of 1999 where he had to do a hemispherectomy( where you remove half of the brain) where the patient survived. Because of all of these feats that he has accomplished he became a world renowned pediatric surgeon who accomplished, as some surgeons call impossible cases.

After retiring from John Hopkins hospital in 2013, he went on to a career in politics in which he is now running for president for 2016. Not only has he impacted our nation politically he has also impacted it on social views as well (homosexuality etc.). He is also a best-selling author for books likeThink Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellencein 1992 which focuses on how you can succeed in life and have a positive mindset.

Interesting Facts

He met his wife Candy, while he was attending college at Yale University, now they have three children, Rhoeyce Carson, Ben Carson Jr., Murray Carson

During his biographical movie Gifted Hands he described himself in childhood that he could never imagine anything nor will he ever imagine anything

Not only was he a surgeon at John Hopkins Hospital, he was also a professor for the hospital’s medical subjects including neurosurgery, plastic surgery, oncology and pediatrics.

During Mr.Carson’s first craniopagus surgery, it consisted of 70 doctors, nurses, technicians and took 22 hours.

At age 34 he was promoted director of John Hopkins Hospital for pediatric neurosurgery and became the youngest director of a surgical division in the United States.